Gama Construction Ireland has said it will facilitate its workers in obtaining details of foreign bank accounts set up in their name.
Following further talks today between the Siptu and representatives of the company, union officials said the company planned to assist with clarifying details of the bank accounts of ten of its workers and to compare these to work sheets.
A spokeswoman for the company said that as this "information is already available" to the workers the company could not provide it. "However we are trying to assist the workers in any way we can."
And in a statement issued this evening the company expressed its frustration with the controversy it finds itself embroiled in. It says "working in Ireland has not been easy for the Turkish workers or for Gama."
It also said that the proposed repatriation of 130 employees from Turkey arose following the ending of the contract for which they were required and also their work permits.
"His [Michael Martin] Department is refusing to issue any further work permits. Therefore these workers can no longer legally work for Gama here. . . . . the company therefore intends to repatriate these workers to reassignment to other contacts." However, the company said it has not yet done this because of the ongoing Department investigation.
According to Siptu, more than 400 Turkish workers claim they were unaware that the company was holding wages in their names in Dutch-owned Fiansbank in the Netherlands
Labour inspectors launched an investigation into Gama after Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins claimed the company demanded "grotesque" working hours, paid unskilled staff €2 to €3 an hour and housed workers in "company barracks". Gama denied the claims, although it later admitted it had underpaid workers last year due to "an error".
Some of the Turkish workers claim they are owed up to €30,000. Trade union officials and representatives of the firm met again today to discuss the alleged mistreatment of several hundred Turkish workers, who walked off building sites this week to stage demonstrations.
Mr Higgins, who first raised the issue in the Dáil in February, brought four ex-Gama workers to the Netherlands last month where they discovered four bank accounts in their names.
SIPTU has called for fraud detectives to investigate Gama if the labour inspectors' report reveals that workers' wages were hidden in foreign bank accounts.
The inspectors have handed a report on the matter to Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment Micheál Martin who is blocked from making the findings public by a High Court injunction taken by the company.
The company is expected to return to the High Court before Mr Justice Frank Clarke on Monday seeking a judicial review of the decision of the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to direct an investigation into the allegations.
The company secured an injunction last week preventing the release of a draft report arising from the investigation